Mission
The City Club of Bellingham is citizens from diverse
backgrounds cooperating
to promote informed discussion of
issues important to the community.
Objectives
- Provide a forum for discussion
- Analyze community issues
- Discover common ground
- Encourage responsible citizenship
- Foster constructive
problem solving
History
City Clubs have enhanced civil dialogue on important issues for decades. There are scores of City Clubs throughout the United States. The Chicago City Club boasts that it has influenced the occupants of the Illinois statehouse and the Chicago Mayor’s mansion since 1903. When President Bush sought to defend his Iraq strategy in politically important Ohio, he chose the Cleveland City Club for his speech, and agreed to the Club’s insistence that questions from its members must be unvetted. On the West Coast, there are 11 City Clubs from Bellingham to San Diego that provide their members with thought-provoking programs and discussions of community issues.
The first general meeting of the Bellingham City Club was held on a December 1993 evening downtown at "The Leopold", then an operating hotel complete. Our speaker was Superior Court Judge Marshall Forrest and the subject was sentencing guidelines.
At City Club meetings you will notice that name tags include the year that a member first joined the Club. For those that joined during our first year the term "Charter Member" is used. Charter members are a good source of information about our history.
Today there are more than 300 members who support the Bellingham City Club and its mission, and supply a vibrant and informed discussion at each program.
Founding Board
Throughout 1993 this hard working group of community-minded citizens developed our charter, staffed out first committees and invited the public to join in our mission.
Dick Beardsley
Steve Brinn
Katy Casey
Patricia Decker
Bruce Disend
Bill Gorman
Jacqui MacConnell
Jeff McClure
Bill Palmer
Chuck Robinson
Phil Sharpe
Orphalee Smith
Kitty Stimpson
Organization
The organization documents below are pdf
files, and require the free Adobe
Reader to open.
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